A DIY Laundry Sorter Solution

Wanting to see how the laundry room would take shape over the course of its renovation, we waited until the cabinets and machines were in place before deciding on a laundry sorting system. For as long as I can remember doing laundry (both growing up and in my adult life), all of our clothes went into one basket. When one could no longer possibly stuff one more sock in the hamper, I’d dump everything onto the ground, and I’d make my piles – whites, darks, delicates – and throughout the course of that day, the family pets would take to those piles like a moth to a flame. (Never mind their cushy beds when they could sleep on the family’s filth!)

This time around, I wanted a true sorting system. Something that would make laundry day more efficient, would take up little to no space in our small room and be easy to use. There’s no point putting systems in place if it’s a pain to keep up, you know? In a few hours, we DIYed this simple 3 bag set up, and we have been loving it – and most importantly, using it. Plus, cute!

TOOLS:

WHAT WE DID:

We wanted sturdy canvas bags that could be thrown in the wash if needed, and the medium size felt good for manageable laundry loads. I picked up the bags for a steal, but I needed a way to hang them in the laundry room. That said, the bags only took me 10 minutes to complete, thanks to these no-fancy-tools needed curtain grommets! They have little teeth on one side to hold the fabric in place, and a small template is included with the pack. Tip: Anything larger than a medium sized bag may create too much weight for these grommets. We found these bags to be a good middle – medium? – ground.

I used the top seam of the bag as my guide, and I centered the included template 4″ in from each side of the bag. After tracing all my circles, I used a pair of sharp fabric scissors to get a clean cut. Tip: It was easier to fold each circle in half before cutting, and it’s best to make your cuts on the inside of the circle. Too small is much better than too big!

The grommets snap right into place by placing the ‘prong’ side underneath the bag and clipping the ‘finish’ grommet on top. Those little teeth latch onto the fabric, but if you make a mistake, a small screwdriver on the ‘prong’ side will pop them off if needed.

While I was doing that, Scott got the hooks ready by using a piece of scrap filler from our cabinets. Earlier, I had marked the studs along our wall with tape, and he made a few measurements to determine where we’d want to secure the hook rack into the wall. Although I would have preferred the cleaner look of all the hooks hanging directly on the wall, the thought of using anchors on our precious wallpaper (and possibly messing up!) was enough to make me realize it wouldn’t be the best move. Our rack is 44″ wide, and we made 4 pilot holes total – 2 for each stud we wanted to hit. Using a chamfer bit first (below on the left) would allow our wood screws to sit below the surface of the rack.

Scott used 2″ wood screws to go through his pilot holes and directly into studs. With the rack in place, I used a putty knife to apply wood filler over the screw heads, and once it was dry, I gave it a light sanding and touched up the paint. From there, I was able to screw in our hooks! We chose these pretty cast iron hooks, and we spaced them 8″ apart on center. We left 2″ on each side of the outer hooks, which is how we landed on a 44″ width overall.

The rack sits about 38″ above the floor, a height that feels comfortable to throw in our clothes while leaving breathing room underneath. We decided on 3 bags for whites, darks and our reusable rags/mops (we use microfiber towels for cleaning as much as possible!).

The sorting bags have been a huge game changer on laundry day. Imagine that! We take each one off the hooks, dump our clothes into the washing machine, and hang it back up! I’ll throw the bags through a cycle every now and then, and they do get wrinkly after a wash and dry, but they eventually relax after being loaded up with more clothes. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we still have the cabinet fillers on our to-do, and then it’s on to the counter, sink install and Libby’s mini kitty condo. But! We’re one step closer, laundry room!

Our longtime sponsor Rejuvenation provided us with the iron hooks to complete this project. Thank you for supporting the brands that support us!

Looks great! With six people in our house, the laundry system looks a little different around here. :D However, at our last house, I made wall pockets hung the same way, for use on the wall by the top bunk of their bunk beds. They used the pockets to hold library books. This DIY could be modified for many different applications.ReplyCancel

Love that, and you’re so right. It can be further modified by size and shape of the bags, too!ReplyCancel

Jennifer7.20.16 - 1:20 PM

Cute! You can probably not worry so much about sorting darks from lights, advances in materials and soap means I have been washing all my clothes together for years wit out issue. The only exception is something like a red sheet.ReplyCancel

Right! Libby’s favorite blanket is red, so we like to keep things pretty separate. And new jeans can be no bueno!ReplyCancel

Lori7.20.16 - 1:45 PM

Too cute! I am confused on how you use this, though. Do you put laundry in there as you use it/dirty it up? Or do you still use one hamper and just sort into these three bags on laundry day?ReplyCancel

This is so great! We’re planning our master closet renovation and I’ve been trying to figure out a laundry sorter solution that doesn’t take up so much room. I love this. It would also be a nice solution for toys in the girls nursery.ReplyCancel

I love this!!! So cute and clever. Our hamper lives in a walk-in closet attached to our bathroom, so it would be a great candidate for a similar system when I finally get that closet under control… I’m going to have to remember this :)ReplyCancel

joy11.4.16 - 1:51 PM

I bet I could hang this in my sons rm and put toys in them.ReplyCancel

[…] ‘Yellow Brick Home‘ keeps all the laundry off their tiny floor space by utilizing these great DIY laundry sorting bags that hang on the wall. These are made from canvas and should last longer than the clothes you put in them! […]ReplyCancel

[…] ‘Yellow Brick Home‘ keeps all the laundry off their tiny floor space by utilizing these great DIY laundry sorting bags that hang on the wall. These are made from canvas and should last longer than the clothes you put in them! […]ReplyCancel

dz5003@gmail.com11.18.18 - 8:58 PM

Now that you have lived with this a while, is there anything you would change?
Do you like the spacing of the hooks?
Do the bags hold up well?
Do the plastic grommets hold up in the wash or do you remove them before washing the bags?
I’m planning to do this very soon!ReplyCancel

We absolutely LOVE our sorter bags and would do it again in a heartbeat. The only difference I would do is take my bags to a dry cleaner or alterations place, and I would ask them to install professional grommets. That way, the fabric will never pull away from the grommets. We have washed and dried our bags with the DIY grommets still on, and they look great, but sometimes if we try to stuff too much laundry in the bags, the fabric will sag away from the grommet (I just have to pop the grommets off and put them back on more snug). As for the spacing, you could have as little or as much spacing as you’re wall allows!ReplyCancel

dz500311.18.18 - 9:15 PM

Do you think I could get away with 2” in between each bag? My wall is not very wide. :(ReplyCancel